Noise is the enemy of fidelity, and how we move signals from one component to another has a major effect on how much noise we let in.
Most audio gear is built around one of two topologies: single-ended or balanced. Single-ended connections, the familiar RCA cables most people know, carry the audio signal on one conductor with a return path to ground. Balanced connections, by contrast, carry two versions of the same signal—one positive, one inverted—along with a separate shield. At the receiving end, the inverted copy is flipped back and combined with the positive.
Any distortion common to both sides as well as noise picked up along the way is canceled out.
For someone new to this, the distinction may sound abstract. But in practice, it’s easy to hear. Single-ended circuits are inherently more vulnerable to hum, buzz, and radio frequency interference, especially with longer cable runs or in electrically noisy environments. Balanced designs, because of their differential nature, reject much of this unwanted energy. What you’re left with is a quieter, cleaner signal path. That’s why balanced connections are standard in professional recording studios where cables may stretch dozens of feet and absolute reliability is required.
Balanced design isn’t just about the cables. True balanced circuits process both halves of the signal from input to output. That means every stage of the amplifier or preamplifier treats the positive and inverted versions equally, only combining them at the final output. The payoff is not only lower noise and distortion but often better linearity and dynamic range, since distortion products generated in one half are mirrored and canceled in the other.
This is where philosophies diverge. Many manufacturers provide balanced connectors on their gear but process the signal single-ended internally, converting back and forth for convenience. A handful of designers, ourselves included, have long been advocates of fully balanced topologies all the way through. It’s more complex and costly, but the benefits in terms of noise rejection, transparency, and dynamic headroom are real. In our view, if you’re going to go balanced, it makes sense to embrace it completely.
For listeners, the difference shows up in the background silence, the clarity of microdynamics, and the stability of imaging. Systems built on balanced topologies have a way of sounding more relaxed yet more revealing at the same time, because noise and distortion are less intrusive. That doesn’t mean single-ended circuits can’t sound excellent—they can, and many great products have been built that way. But when it comes to rejecting interference and maximizing musical truth, balanced topologies hold a clear advantage.
